Last Day in Texas

We settled in last night at the Roadrunner RV Park in Fort Stockton, Texas.  The park has the bare necessities:  water, sewer, electric. There is no fancy camp store or office, and while there are restrooms and showers, they are not very attractive.  The Park does offer cable TV to the permanent residents (it appears that most of the RV/Trailers here are permanent).  When I asked Hank about the cable hookup, he said, “You can hook her up if you want’er, but there ain’t but two channels and they’s both Spanish.”  Hank, with his “Confederate” red hat with various ornaments attached, and with a scruffy, unkempt growth on his face, was truly a friendly fellow.  He asked if I were a veteran, saying, “Ya look like yer are.”  I told him I was and he said, “Fifty percent off for veterans chere!”  I do believe every resident here at the Roadrunner RV Park has a  big diesel pick-up truck. Those trucks make quite a noise as they pass by our little home on wheels this morning.

Speaking of roadrunners—the bird, I mean—I haven’t seen a single one this time crossing Texas.   The roadrunner is a bird that can fly, but prefers to run and can run up to 20 miles per hour.  It is a marvelous experience to encounter the other native “roadrunner”  here in Texas. This species of roadrunner is much more prominent and readily encountered on the roadways. He/she runs and flies at 90 to 100 miles an hour (normally in a big diesel pick-up truck) on the Interstate where the posted speed limit is 80 mph.  Odysseus typically stays in the right lane at 73 mph catching the air torrents as the roadrunners race by.

Driving into west Texas I was impressed by the scores and scores of windmills erected since the last time we passed through.  There is a lot of wind blowing in those barren areas—and I’m glad Texas is taking advantage of it.  But even among the fields of windmills the oil pumps and tanks can be seen everywhere seeking the fossil fuel that still carries our economy—and Odysseus, too!

Today we will drive to El Paso and on into New Mexico.  We’ll visit Texas and her friendly people again on our return home. 

Odysseus at Monument Valley, Utah--2015